Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet | Backstage Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet By Scott Proudfit | Posted June 3, 2003, midnight Share: Like the Laurel and Hardy of crime, the unlikely but popular duo of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre made an unofficial series of Warner Bros. films during the 1940s, often wartime thrillers in which they schemed with or against each other. As with the fat guy/ thin guy comedy teams of their time, Lorre and Greenstreet seemed to delight audiences in their contrast. Today they continue to fascinate cinephiles with their unique, often deliciously over-the-top character work. Greenstreet specialized in well-dressed gentlemen who threatened in whispers. His obesity a representation of privilege and indulgence, Greenstreet was often referred to disparagingly as The Fat Man in his films. But more to the point he was The Man—capital "T," capital "M"—an embodiment of the bloated establishment.

Greenstreet's characters—like Marvel Comics' villainous Kingpin, a creation inspired by the actor—captured a smug, colonialist attitude that was so very un-American and thus ripe for attack from such hard-nosed toughs as Humphrey Bogart and George Raft. Lorre, on the other hand, was The Foreigner: devious, slippery, bug-eyed, with a lisping Hungarian accent that stood in for French, Egyptian, Russian, Japanese—whatever outsider dialect the studio needed. Diminutive and effeminate, Lorre's persona played on WWII paranoia in America. His odd characters were inevitably weaker than the macho patriots in the lead, but they were still potentially dangerous in their deceitfulness. Despite differences in appearance and background, what Greenstreet and Lorre had in common was an ability to perfectly portray a certain kind of sweaty desperation that was never put to better use than in their first and perhaps best collaboration, The Maltese Falcon. Born in Austria-Hungary, Lorre already had behind him a long pedigree of creepy character roles—as well as the B-movie Mr.

Moto series—when he was cast as fey Joel Cairo in John Huston's adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett detective thriller. In Vienna and Berlin, Lorre had a more impressive history: as a stage performer and star of Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. But on film Lorre never overcame his seminal turn as the disturbing, but pathetically human, child murderer in Fritz Lang's classic M. Later a favorite in Alfred Hitchcock's stable (The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Secret Agent), Lorre was wooed by none other than Adolph Hitler—who appreciated the actor's depiction of murderers—to return to Germany in 1936 and take part in the burgeoning film industry there. Lorre wrote back: "Thank you, but I think Germany has room for only one mass murderer of my ability and yours." Apparently, the Führer never forgave the slight. During the war, when a Nazi saboteur was captured by the FBI, Lorre's name was third on his list of 100 people to be exterminated. For Greenstreet, on the other hand, Falcon was his film debut—at the age of 62, no less.

Like Lorre, Greenstreet was schooled on the stage, initially in England and later on Broadway and in touring productions of Shakespeare, often with the Lunts. He enjoyed a healthy career of Sir Toby Belches, Baptistas, and Falstaffs, and probably would have finished out his career this way had he not been spotted by Falcon's director Huston in a production of Robert E. Sherwood's There Shall Be No Night. Like Lorre's turn in M, Greenstreet's performance as Casper Gutman in Falcon made such an impression on audiences that he rarely got a chance, in his brief career, to play anything far afield, despite insisting that light farce was his true love. In Falcon, Greenstreet's voice is like melted butter as he throws away such classic lines as "I'm a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk." Greenstreet fills the screen with his imposing girth, and though his face collapses weakly into his soft neck, his eyes are as hawkish and piercing as the black bird he seeks.

Lorre, meanwhile, was never more flowery than in this film, with his hair curled and oiled and his delivery, as the perfumed Cairo, by turns amusingly clipped and shrilly panicked. In the penultimate scene, Greenstreet hacks at the fake falcon with a tiny penknife, the perspiration dripping from his sad little boy's face as the tiny Lorre attacks him, eyes blazing: "You—you imbecile! You bloated idiot! You stupid fathead, you!" It's a grotesque but delightful scene: Greenstreet and Lorre like anthropomorphisms of the deadly sins avarice and anger. The film, of course, was a huge hit. And once Lorre and Greenstreet showed up as similar characters a year later in another classic, Casablanca—Greenstreet as Rick's envious colleague Signor Ferrari and Lorre as the murderous black-marketeer Ugarte—their fates were sealed. Before Greenstreet's death in 1949, the duo appeared in no fewer than nine films together.

They include the rather dull spy thriller Background to Danger (1943), made bearable only by Lorre's bizarre mantra as Russian spy Zaloshoff, "I want vodka!"; Hollywood Canteen (1944), playing themselves among the Warner cavalcade of stars, and threatening a too-eager soldier who keeps stepping on an Andrew Sister's toes; Passage to Marseille (1944), a re-teaming with Bogart, which starred Greenstreet as a Nazi-sympathizing French major and Lorre as a good-hearted pickpocket, as well as The Conspirators (1944), Three Strangers (1946), and The Verdict (1946). Perhaps their finest pairing outside of Falcon, however, was in the 1944 mystery The Mask of Dimitrios, with Lorre strangely enough in the lead, as a novelist investigating the death of an infamous criminal, and Greenstreet as a shady man who stands to gain from proving the crook is still alive.

At the end of the film, as the wounded Greenstreet is taken away by authorities for his crimes, Lorre pleads: "I know he is guilty, but he is my friend." It's an oddly touching scene and a proper epitaph to one of the strangest duos to ever hit the silver screen. Read Also: Sydney Greenstreet Sydney Greenstreet Role: Old Time Radio Star Born: 27 December 1879 Old Time Radio, Sandwich, Kent, England, UK Died: 18 January 1954, Hollywood, California, U.S. Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (27 December 1879 – 18 January 1954) was an English stage and film actor. He is most widely known for hisWarner Bros. films with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, which include The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942). Early life Greenstreet was born in Sandwich, Kent, England, the son of Ann (née Baker) and John Jack Greenstreet, a leather merchant, and had seven siblings.

He left home at age 18 to make his fortune as a Ceylon tea planter, but drought forced him out of business and back to England. He managed a brewery and, to escape boredom, took acting lessons. Career Greenstreet's stage debut was as a murderer in a 1902 production of a Sherlock Holmes story at the Marina Theatre, Ramsgate, Kent. He toured Britain with Ben Greet's Shakespearean company, and in 1905, he made his New York debut. Thereafter he appeared in such plays as a revival of As You Like It in 1916 with revered actress Margaret Anglin. Greenstreet appeared in numerous plays in Britain and America, working through most of the 1930s with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne at the Theatre Guild. Throughout his stage career, his parts ranged from musical comedy to Shakespeare, and years of such versatile acting on two continents led to many offers to appear in films. He refused until he was 62.

Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon (1941) Greenstreet and Humphrey Bogart inCasablanca (1942) Greenstreet in Casablanca (1942) In 1941, Greenstreet began working for Warner Bros.. His debut film role was as Kasper Gutman ("The Fat Man") in The Maltese Falcon, which co-starred Peter Lorre as the twitchy Joel Cairo, a pairing that would prove profitable and long-lasting for Warner Bros.

The two men appeared in nine films together, including Casablanca (1942) as crooked club owner Signor Ferrari (for which he received a salary of $3,750 per week for seven weeks), as well as Background to Danger (1943, with George Raft), Passage to Marseille (1944), reteaming him with Casablanca stars Humphrey Bogart andClaude Rains, The Mask of Dimitrios (1944, receiving top billing), The Conspirators (1944, with Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid), Hollywood Canteen(1944), Three Strangers (1946, receiving top billing) and The Verdict (1946, with top billing). The actor played roles in both dramatic films, such asWilliam Makepeace Thackeray in Devotion and witty performances in screwball comedies, for instance Alexander Yardley in Christmas in Connecticut. After a mere eight years, in 1949, Greenstreet's film career ended with Malaya, in which he was billed third, after Spencer Tracy and James Stewart.

In those eight years, he worked with stars ranging from Clark Gable to Ava Gardner to Joan Crawford. Author Tennessee Williams wrote his one-act playThe Last of My Solid Gold Watches with Greenstreet in mind, and dedicated it to him. In 1950 and 1951, Greenstreet played Nero Wolfe on the NBC radio programme The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, based loosely on the rotund detective genius created by Rex Stout. Death and legacy Greenstreet suffered from diabetes and Bright's disease, a kidney disorder. Five years after leaving films, Greenstreet died in 1954 due to complications from diabetes. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California in the Utility Columbarium area of the Great Mausoleum, inaccessible to the public. He was survived by his only child, John Ogden Greenstreet, from Greenstreet's marriage to Dorothy Marie Ogden. John Ogden Greenstreet died 4 March 2004, aged 74.

An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "The Big Goodbye" has a holographic villain "Cyrus Redblock", played by Lawrence Tierney, whose surname may be a reference to Greenstreet's surname and whose character is a reference to Greenstreet's character Kasper Gutman (The Fat Man) in The Maltese Falcon. Greenstreet was partially the inspiration for the Jabba the Hutt character in Return of the Jedi (1983). The Marvel Comics' character "The Kingpin" wasreportedly based on Greenstreet. Source: Wikipedia The Maltese Falcon (1941) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

Director: John Huston (screenplay), Dashiell Hammett (based upon the novel by) Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 23 titles created 15 Aug 2013 a list of 25 titles created 25 Dec 2013 a list of 22 titles created 24 Feb 2015 a list of 25 titles created 3 months ago a list of 49 titles created 1 month ago Title: The Maltese Falcon (1941) 8.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins. See more awards » Videos Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Director: John Huston Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

Director: Howard Hawks An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions. Director: Billy Wilder A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town. Director: Orson Welles Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime. Director: Carol Reed A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity. Director: Billy Wilder A man visits his old friend's hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other. Director: John Huston In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications. Director: Michael Curtiz A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder - a theory that he plans to implement.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock In Africa during World War I, a gin-swilling riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship. Director: John Huston An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses. Director: Elia Kazan Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. Director: Orson Welles Edit Storyline Spade and Archer is the name of a San Francisco detective agency. That's for Sam Spade and Miles Archer. The two men are partners, but Sam doesn't like Miles much. A knockout, who goes by the name of Miss Wonderly, walks into their office; and by that night everything's changed. Miles is dead. And so is a man named Floyd Thursby. It seems Miss Wonderly is surrounded by dangerous men. There's Joel Cairo, who uses gardenia-scented calling cards. There's Kasper Gutman, with his enormous girth and feigned civility. Her only hope of protection comes from Sam, who is suspected by the police of one or the other murder.

More murders are yet to come, and it will all be because of these dangerous men -- and their lust for a statuette of a bird: the Maltese Falcon. Written by J. Spurlin Another Great Story from the author of "The Thin Man!" See more » Genres: 18 October 1941 (USA) See more » Also Known As: The Gent from Frisco See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Sam Spade refers to Wilmer as a "gunsel", a term the censors assumed was a reference to a gunman. The Yiddish term "gunsel"--literally, "little goose"--may indeed be a vulgarism for homosexual (the word "faigle", or "little bird", is usually used in that respect), but it's more commonly an "underground" term that refers to a person who is either a "fall guy" or a "stool pigeon", in which case Spade is making both a direct and an indirect reference to Wilmer's character. See more » Goofs When searching for the body, Sam's handkerchief is ruffled only while he is in the room, not before or after.

See more » Quotes Effie Perine : I guess so. You'll want to see her anyway. She's a knockout. Sam Spade : Shoo her in, Effie darling, shoo her in. (Ohio) – See all my reviews With a fine combination of cast, characters, story, and atmosphere, this classic is one of the most entertaining films of its kind, enjoyable even after several viewings. It gets you right into the action and introduces you to a list of interesting personalities, who mesh together nicely and who are also matched well with the cast members. Beyond that, it's also effective as a character study involving greed, trust and distrust, and conflicting ethics. Sam Spade is an ideal role for Bogart, giving him plenty to work with and some very good dialogue as well. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet are very entertaining, providing suitable foils for Bogart, and they really take the film up a notch. The rest of the cast also works well (worth mentioning is Elisha Cook, Jr., whose character doesn't do a lot, but who provides Bogart with some very amusing moments at his expense).

The story is nicely adapted from the novel, and each scene is constructed well, with everything moving along nicely from start to finish. If you are a fan of either film noir or mysteries, make this a must-see. There are very few films that work as well as "The Maltese Falcon". 44 of 56 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes The Maltese Falcon (2/10) Movie CLIP - Joel Cairo (1941) HD - YouTube The Maltese Falcon (2/10) Movie CLIP - Joel Cairo (1941) HD Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Oct 25, 2012 The Maltese Falcon movie clips: BUY THE MOVIE: Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: CLIP DESCRIPTION: Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) informs Sam (Humphrey Bogart) of the Maltese Falcon, and offers to pay him $5,000 for it's recovery. FILM DESCRIPTION: After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally got it right in 1941--or, rather, John Huston, a long-established screenwriter making his directorial debut, got it right, simply by adhering as closely as possible to the original. Taking over from a recalcitrant George Raft, Humphrey Bogart achieved true stardom as Sam Spade, a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his own personal code of honor.

Into the offices of the Spade & Archer detective agency sweeps a Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor), who offers a large retainer to Sam and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) if they'll protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. The detectives believe neither Miss Wonderly nor her story, but they believe her money. Since Archer saw her first, he takes the case -- and later that evening he is shot to death, as is the mysterious Thursby. Miss Wonderly's real name turns out to be Brigid O'Shaughnessey, and, as the story continues, Sam is also introduced to the effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and the fat, erudite Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet, in his film debut). It turns out that Brigid, Cairo and Gutman are all international scoundrels, all involved in the search for a foot-high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon.

Though both Cairo and Gutman offer Spade small fortunes to find the "black bird," they are obviously willing to commit mayhem and murder towards that goal: Gutman, for example, drugs Spade and allows his "gunsel" Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.) to kick and beat the unconscious detective. This classic film noir detective yarn gets better with each viewing, which is more than can be said for the first two Maltese Falcons and the ill-advised 1975 "sequel" The Black Bird. CREDITS: Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre Director: John Huston Producers: Henry Blanke, Hal B. Wallis Screenwriters: John Huston, Dashiell Hammett WHO ARE WE? The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans, for movie fans.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MOVIE CHANNELS: Peter Lorre | The Bogie Film Blog The Bogie Film Blog A Film by Film Affair with Humphrey Bogart Search Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, The Maltese Falcon, 1941 a The Usual Suspects: Early on during the first few weeks of this blog, I had the idea to start a section where I would write about some of Bogart’s more regular collaborators and costars – actors, directors, writers, etc. – that worked with him on multiple films. Given the contract system of the movie studios, casts and crews often overlapped from one film to another. Character actor Eddy Chandler, for instance, costarred in thirteen different pictures with Bogart, almost exclusively in tiny bit parts, often uncredited. But there were also those artists that Bogart had deep personal friendships with, and sometimes, strong working relationships – people that often appeared repeatedly by choice, supporting Hollywood’s most famous leading man to make some of the greatest films in cinema history.

Dubbed The Usual Suspects, this first post is in response to the “Dynamic Duos” Blogathon over at Classic Movie Hub ( @ClassicMovieHub) and Once Upon a Screen (@CitizenScreen ). What better way to begin, I thought, than by kicking it off with one of Bogie’s most famous costars and close friends, Peter Lorre. The Man Born in Rózsahegy, Hungary, László Löwenstein began his acting career by sacrificing everything he had in life to devote himself to the theater, eventually moving to Germany to study under playwright Bertolt Brecht. Brecht latched onto Lorre right away and knew how to use him, bringing the unique looking actor much acclaim during their long and productive collaboration together. Adopting the stage name Peter Lorre in 1925, Lowenstein received his big break in the starring role of his second movie, playing a child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M. When the Nazis fully took power of Germany in 1933, Lorre left, traveling Europe and eventually arriving at London. His performance in M got him noticed by director Alfred Hitchcock and led to a role in Hitchcock’s film The Man Who Knew Too Much.

After working with Hitchcock, Lorre would make his move to Hollywood where he found great success with his unique look and soft speech pattern playing an assortment of bad guys and shady characters. Lorre would go on to star in the Mr. Moto movie series in which he played a Japanese detective in eight different films. He also became a longtime collaborator with actor Sydney Greenstreet, making nine films with the English stage legend. Lorre is perhaps best known, though, as the five-time costar and good friend of Humphrey Bogart. Working together on some of Hollywood’s most legendary classic films, Bogart and Lorre left behind some great stories of onset pranks, drinking revelry, and a deep friendship that reverberate through Hollywood lore to this day. It was at Lorre’s house where Bogart would sleep off many a drunk night rather than go home to face his third wife, Mayo Methot. It was also at Lorre’s ranch where Bogart and Lauren Bacall would hideaway for weekend rendezvous when they needed to stay out of the limelight as they courted.

And perhaps most famously, it was Lorre who gave this advice when Bogart fretted that he was too old for Lauren Bacall – “Five good years are better than none!” THE FILMOGRAPHY The Maltese Falcon – 1941 Lorre plays Joel Cairo, an associate of Sydney Greenstreet’s Kasper ‘The Fatman’ Gutman. Both men make attempts to hire Sam Spade (Humprhey Bogart) to acquire a valuable jewel-encrusted falcon statue – perhaps the most famous cinema ‘MacGuffin’ of all time. Cairo, who’s portrayed overtly gay in the novel on which the film is based, has his homosexuality toned down considerably in this film due to the Hay’s Code of film censorship. Instead of direct references, Cairo’s sexuality is inferred through his effeminate fussiness, and occasional physicalities with his cane: Reportedly, the cast and crew got along very well during the filming of this movie, and would go out for drinks at the end of the day as they were often ahead of production schedule. They were also a very close knit and private group, unappreciative of outside influence either from the studio or the public.

One particularly famous story relates that one of the main actors, either Bogart or Lorre, played a joke on a visiting women’s club as they walked by the set. One of the two actors supposedly exited Mary Astor’s trailer, zipping up his fly, and calling out “Bye, Mary!” A. M. Sperber credits the story as happening to Lorre in her Bogart bio, Bogart (p 160), while Stefan Kanfer names Bogart as the perpetrator in his Bogart bio, Tough Without a Gun (p 65). Neither author cites specifically where they got the story, but I suppose what’s most important is not the actual culprit, but the reputation that the cast had earned as ornery tricksters and close friends. All Through the Night – 1941 Lorre plays Pepi, the Nazi hitman and sometimes piano accompanist to Kaaren Verne’s Leda Hamilton. Pepi kicks off the storyline by murdering “Gloves” Donahue’s (Humphrey Bogart) favorite cheesecake baker, setting off a chain of events that leads New York’s most notorious gangsters up against the Third Reich in this comedy thriller.

Lorre enters the film walking through the door of a baker’s shop, eerily humming a tune before teasing the poor baker and then beating him to death. Referred to as “the goggle-eyed little rat,” by ‘Gloves,’ Lorre is wonderful, and one of the true highlights of the film. Only two actors are capable of smoking in such a way as to defy gravity – Lorre and Bogart – as their cigarettes dangle at an impossible 90 degree angle from their lips. Karen Verne would go on to leave her husband for Lorre, becoming Lorre’s second wife, although their marriage would prove to be tumultuous and short lived. Casablanca – 1942 Lorre plays Ugarte, a black marketeer who hides valuable letters of transit with Bogart’s Rick Blaine before being arrested by the police. Ugarte’s plan is to sell the papers for a small fortune in order to pay for his escape from Casablanca. His relationship with Blaine seems to be one of mutual loathing and respect. They don’t necessarily like each other, but they occasionally find one another valuable.

Just before giving Blaine the transit papers, Ugarte tells him “You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust.” Blaine tells Ugarte that he’ll hold the papers for him, but doesn’t want them in his nightclub overnight. We then get perhaps the most ominous moment in the film when Ugarte lightly puts his hands upon the papers and gently tells Rick “Don’t be afraid of them. . .” The papers are Casablanca’s ‘MacGuffin,’ and once again Peter Lorre is here to play a hand in the treasured objects of fate. Men died for Ugarte to obtain the papers, and more people would die before they are finally used. As the objects of everyone’s desires, even Blaine himself contemplates stealing the papers to run away with Ilsa. Lorre’s part in the movie was small and shot so quickly that he had no idea how much the role would go on to help define his place in cinema history. On the set, he supposedly carried a hidden dropper of water that he would use to extinguish Director Michael Curtiz’s cigarette with when he wasn’t looking.

(Kanfer, 79) Passage to Marseille – 1944 Lorre plays Marius, one of Bogart’s fellow escaped convicts from Devil’s Island. I found this to be one of Lorre’s most likable roles, as he’s a full-on action partner to Bogart in the film, teaming up to both escape from prison, and then later to take down a Nazi bomber as it attacks their ship. Seeing both men take their shots at the German plane with machine guns, occasionally stopping to wave to one another and smile, is one of my favorite moments in Bogart / Lorre cinema history. There’s a lot of delight to be had watching both men squint, smoke, and plot together as they make their way back to France. This is the only film out of the five in which they are on completely friendly terms, and their chemistry is superb. As the story goes, Bogart and Lorre took great fun in pranking Director Michael Curtiz on the set. Both would take turns stalling shots as they told long and tedious anecdotes. The monologues would only end when they got a laugh from Curtiz. No laugh from the director meant more jokes and stories from Bogart and Lorre.

(Kanfer, 96) Beat the Devil – 1953 Lorre plays Mr. O’Hara, a member of the criminal ring that’s in league with Bogart to obtain and exploit some African land that’s rich with uranium. Bogart and Director John Huston wanted Lorre on this film as they believed that he was a lucky talisman for Bogart after The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. (Kanfer, 175) Not to mention the fact that Lorre and Bogart were good drinking friends, and always enjoyed each other’s company. Huston and Bogart asked Lorre to take a significant pay cut in order to keep the budget low, and Lorre accepted the role in order to work with a good friend.

Lorre’s costar, Robert Morley, on the other hand, considered Lorre to be “an intensely tiresome little chap with quite the foulest vocabulary I have ever had the misfortune to listen to.” (Kanfer, 178) Sporting some extra weight and a short crop of blond hair, Lorre is great as the smooth-talking little crook that is excited for the swindle, but always ready to cower behind one of the other criminals if things look rough. If you haven’t seen it in a while, the film is a lot of fun, and it’s great to hear Lorre’s distinctive speech pattern saying lines written by scriptwriter Truman Capote: O’Hara: “Time, time, what is it? The Swiss manufacture it, the French hoard it, Italians want it, Americans say it’s money, Hindus say it does not exist. You know what I say? I say time is a crook.” Truer words were never spoken as you consider the fact that this was the last pairing of the two great Classic Hollywood actors. In Closing Five films. All of them are classics in their own right. One of them is considered by many to be the greatest film of all time.

The friendship and working relationship of Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre has etched a large and permanent mark onto the landscape of cinema history. Powerfully gifted apart, but even greater together, I can’t think of a better duo to kick off the inaugural post for The Usual Suspects portion of this blog. Bonus Lorre Facts: He was the very first actor to play a bond villain when he portrayed Le Chiffre in the 1954 TV version of Casino Royale! When asked by the House Un-American Activities Committee to name the names of anyone he considered suspicious and possibly a communist, Lorre gave them a list of everyone he knew. The same group would go on to assemble a thick file on Bogart and cause him considerable mental turmoil over the years despite the fact that he was a diehard U.S. patriot. The Boo Berry ghost mascot from General Mills was inspired by Lorre. *All research for this post was done with Stephen D. Youngkin’s Peter Lorre biography, The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre , A. M.

Sperber’s Humphrey Bogart biography, Bogart, Stefan Kanfer’s Humphrey Bogart biography, Tough Without a Gun, Peter Lorre’s Wikipedia page , The Maltese Falcon’s Wikipedia page , the official website of The Humphrey Bogart Estate , and various movie entries on IMDB . All screen caps were done by the author and are intended for review/criticism of the films mentioned. Any portion of this post that could not be correlated with at least one other source is credited specifically within the post. Share this: When You're Slapped, You'll Take It & Like It - The Maltese Falcon (3/10) Movie CLIP (1941) HD - YouTube When You're Slapped, You'll Take It & Like It - The Maltese Falcon (3/10) Movie CLIP (1941) HD Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Oct 25, 2012 The Maltese Falcon movie clips: BUY THE MOVIE: Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: CLIP DESCRIPTION: Sam (Humphrey Bogart) and Brigid O'Shughnessy (Mary Astor) meet with Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) to take care of business but Brigid and Cairo don't seem to get along too well. FILM DESCRIPTION: After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally got it right in 1941--or, rather, John Huston, a long-established screenwriter making his directorial debut, got it right, simply by adhering as closely as possible to the original. Taking over from a recalcitrant George Raft, Humphrey Bogart achieved true stardom as Sam Spade, a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his own personal code of honor.

Into the offices of the Spade & Archer detective agency sweeps a Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor), who offers a large retainer to Sam and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) if they'll protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. The detectives believe neither Miss Wonderly nor her story, but they believe her money. Since Archer saw her first, he takes the case -- and later that evening he is shot to death, as is the mysterious Thursby. Miss Wonderly's real name turns out to be Brigid O'Shaughnessey, and, as the story continues, Sam is also introduced to the effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and the fat, erudite Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet, in his film debut). It turns out that Brigid, Cairo and Gutman are all international scoundrels, all involved in the search for a foot-high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon.

Though both Cairo and Gutman offer Spade small fortunes to find the "black bird," they are obviously willing to commit mayhem and murder towards that goal: Gutman, for example, drugs Spade and allows his "gunsel" Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.) to kick and beat the unconscious detective. This classic film noir detective yarn gets better with each viewing, which is more than can be said for the first two Maltese Falcons and the ill-advised 1975 "sequel" The Black Bird. CREDITS: Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor Director: John Huston Producers: Henry Blanke, Hal B. Wallis Screenwriters: John Huston, Dashiell Hammett WHO ARE WE? The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans, for movie fans.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MOVIE CHANNELS: The Maltese Falcon: The Essentials THE MALTESE FALCON: The Essentials Thursday February, 16 2017 at 06:15 PM Sunday March, 5 2017 at 10:00 AM Wednesday March, 15 2017 at 11:00 AM Films in BOLD will Air on TCM * | VIEW TCMDb ENTRY SYNOPSIS After his partner is murdered while trailing a suspect named Thursby, detective Sam Spade vows to avenge his friend. He soon discovers that Thursby had also threatened a Miss Wonderly, an alias for Brigid O'Shaughnessy. As Spade digs deeper into the mystery, he learns that Ms. O'Shaughnessy is in cahoots with some sinister characters, all of them desperate to retrieve a priceless figurine containing rare gems. Using his wits, Spade expertly turns the conspirators against each other, eventually learning the true killer of his partner. Director: John Huston Producer: Hal B.

Wallis, Henry Blanke Screenplay: John Huston, based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett Cinematography: Arthur Edeson Art Direction: Robert Haas Music: Adolph Deutsch Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Sam Spade), Mary Astor (Brigid O'Shaughnessy), Peter Lorre (Joel Cairo), Sydney Greenstreet (Kasper Gutman), Barton MacLane (Detective Lieutenant Dundy), Ward Bond (Detective Tom Polhaus), Elisha Cook, Jr. (Wilmer Cook). BW-101m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video. Why THE MALTESE FALCON is Essential Today, many film scholars refer to The Maltese Falcon as the first official film noir. To Huston's credit, he did not change one line of dialogue, and he only dropped one short scene when he realized he could substitute a phone call instead. Bogart's role in this film elevated him to cult status, and Ingrid Bergman studied him as Sam Spade to judge how to interact with him in Casablanca one year later.

During production on The Maltese Falcon, the cast and crew had the feeling they were shooting something exciting and tried to deter any unwanted visitors from coming to the set. The publicity people once brought a group of priests to the set. Before shooting began, Astor looked down at her legs and said, "Hold it a minute, I've got a g**damn run in my stocking" while the publicity man quickly ushered the priests off the set. Despite the numerous practical jokes his cast and crew played, however, Huston proved himself to be the consummate professional and was so efficient at his job that the crew often finished shooting for the day early, well ahead of schedule. On one of these days, Huston had set aside an entire day to shoot one elaborate moving camera sequence. The sequence lasted about seven minutes, and they nailed it perfectly in one take; the rest of the day was spent at the golf club. It was because of days like this that production finished two days ahead of schedule and $54,000 under budget. The cast couldn't have been better. Mary Astor was an inspired Brigid O'Shaughnessy and Peter Lorre turned in an excellent performance, as usual, as Joel Cairo.

Sydney Greenstreet earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his first ever film role, as Kasper Gutman. The other Academy Award nominations included Best Picture and Best Screenplay. To this day, it is considered one of the quintessential detective thrillers and has attracted a loyal cult following. For Humphrey Bogart, the experience of The Maltese Falcon was the tops. He later said, "It was practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of but that's one." Bogart so respected Huston and the Sam Spade character that he searched until the end of his life for a script that recaptured the excitement he found in The Maltese Falcon. A few years before his death, Bogart revealed that he had purchased a book to be adapted into a film for he and his wife, Lauren Bacall. "We might do it," he told a radio interviewer, "in association with John Huston...It's a little on the order of The Maltese Falcon." Warner Bros. had the bright idea of casting contract player George Raft in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, and he was scheduled to report to the set only four days before shooting began.

Raft, a veteran of 1930s gangster and tough guy pictures, just like Humphrey Bogart, had other ideas though. He did not think The Maltese Falcon was a very important picture, and as he reminded Jack Warner in a June 6, 1941 memo, his contract gave him veto power over films that he thought were not worthy of his name. Raft also chaffed at the idea of working with a novice director. That's how Humphrey Bogart got the role. He had just scored a hit in High Sierra (1941), another picture Raft turned down. In fact, Raft continued to advance Bogart's career through his own inability to recognize potential hits: the actor reportedly turned down the lead in Casablanca (1942) as well. With Raft out of the picture, Warner Bros. briefly flirted with the idea of Edward G. Robinson in the role, but cooler heads prevailed and Humphrey Bogart was taken off suspension for refusing to appear in Bad Men of Missouri (1941) and given the lead. When John Huston was informed of who was to be his leading man, "I thanked God.

It was a blessing!" It was also divine providence that the studio allowed Huston a good deal of leeway in the casting, particularly in the case of Sydney Greenstreet. The sixty-one year old actor made his film debut in The Maltese Falcon, all 285 pounds of him, after a long career as a stage actor. Huston had discovered Greenstreet in a Los Angeles play called There Shall Be No Night, co-starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Ironically, Sydney Greenstreet was a nervous wreck when it came time for his very first scene. Despite his years of stage experience in front of a live audience, Greenstreet implored Mary Astor before a scene, "Mary dear, hold my hand, tell me I won't make an ass of meself!" As Greenstreet performed his first scene flawlessly, John Huston held his breath, a nervous tic that stayed with him throughout his career as a director. Warner Bros. executives initially wanted to offer the Brigid O'Shaughnessy part to contract player Geraldine Fitzgerald until freelance actress Mary Astor read the script.

Fitzgerald cost a great deal less than Astor, and she was also eight years younger than Astor, whose career at the studio dated back to the silent days when she was a teenage leading lady opposite such heartthrobs as John Barrymore. The only problem was that Fitzgerald had no interest in starring in a low-budget whodunit with a novice director and a B-movie leading man, Humphrey Bogart. Having reportedly hailed the script as "a humdinger," Astor did not have to be talked into taking the role. She found Brigid O'Shaughnessy to be a ripe and juicy role. As she wrote in her memoir, A Life on Film, Brigid "was attractive, charming, appealingly feminine and helpless, and a complete liar and murderess." The girl next door, Brigid O'Shaughnessy was not. Between shooting films in Hollywood, Elisha Cook, Jr. lived alone up in the High Sierra hills, where he spent his days fishing for golden trout. When his services were requested for a new film, producers would send word up to his mountain cabin via courier. He would come down for the shoot, then retreat as soon as production wrapped.

Interestingly enough, Cook had last shared billing with Humphrey Bogart on Broadway in the play Chrysalis. by Scott McGee & Sarah Heiman The Maltese Falcon (1941) – Classic for a Reason Contact Me The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Maltese Falcon, 1941, Warner Bros. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre. Directed by John Huston. B&W, 100 minutes. In foggy San Francisco, world-weary private detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) has taken on a new case from beauty Ruth Wonderly (Mary Astor). Spade’s partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan), is clearly attracted to Miss Wonderly and agrees to go undercover that night on her behalf. While seeking out the man she believes can help her, he is fatally shot — and so is the subject of his search. Spade discovers, or rather confirms, that Ruth Wonderly is not her real name, and she is apparently Brigid O’Shaughnessy.

The two are caught up in a passionate affair, yet that seemingly doesn’t cloud his judgment in uncovering clues in the case. Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor Spade does determine the real crux of Brigid’s concern is the Maltese Falcon, an ancient small statue encrusted in rare jewels that is being transported to San Francisco. Enter Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), a small, slick man whose loyalties aren’t clear and character is, and the “Fat Man,” Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), whose dedication to anyone or anything is centered around obtaining the elusive statue. Considered by many the first of the film noir style movies, it set a standard for such that was challenging to meet. The film was based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett, which was originally serialized in five parts in a popular magazine of the time, Black Mask. The novel was far more provocative than censors of the time would allow movies to be, although as a film The Maltese Falcon does a good job of letting in a strong sexual element. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Greenstreet and Best Adapted Screenplay for John Huston.

This was also Huston’s directorial debut, along with Greenstreet’s screen debut, at the age of 61, after a long stage career. Mary Astor, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre The movie was made three times; this was the third and undoubtedly the best. Uncharacteristic to the times, Huston’s screenplay stayed true to the original story, and his directing carried the atmosphere of the novel to the screen. Taking a complex story written by one of the most accomplished mystery writers of our time and bringing it to the screen in a manner true to the original is an enormous task, and Huston did it. George Raft was first offered the role of Sam Spade, but he considered the movie unimportant and was unhappy at the thought of working with a first-time director. He had also turned down the lead in High Sierra, the role that had then launched Bogart’s leading man career, and is rumored to have later turned down the part of Rick in Casablanca. A rumor that is just as likely to be a good story as the truth, but it is a good story.

The role of Brigid was first turned down by rising star Geraldine Fitzgerald, who, among other reasons, didn’t want to star beside then B-movie actor Humphrey Bogart. Mary Astor had no such reservations and leapt at the chance to play the complex, dark woman whose motives and actions were always suspect. Mary Astor, Humphrey Bogart Greenstreet and Lorre played off each other well — Greenstreet the self-confident, bigger-than-life character and Lorre the small, nervous, somewhat odd and unpredictable man. They appeared together in nine more films, notably Casablanca a year later. Their supporting roles in that film were as critical to the story as was Bogart’s leading man performance. The Maltese Falcon is a film you can see one hundred times over and never view in quite the same way twice. It is complex, underplayed yet exciting, and full of subtle, rich details that fill the screen. A must-see for all classic film fans.

Question: In which film starring Humphrey Bogart did Peter Lorre play Joel Cairo and Sydney Greenstreet play Kasper Gutman?
Answer: THE MALTESE FALCON